Fish Tacos

In case you were wondering if the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, rest assured, Cowgirl's husband was literally GRUNTING as he ate this. I mean, seriously. Grunting. And Umm. And, Ugh. And, Ohh. And Ugh, And whatever grunting sounds a man makes. Good Lord.

But I watched and I learned.

Pinto Beans, White Northern Beans, Kidney Beans, and can of corn - all drained. A can of green chilies, some onion, some salsa, lime juice and you mix that all up and top it with cod and shrimp in a pan, top with some parmesan and cover it with foil. Bake it on the grill (or in the oven) until the fish is done, layer it on tortillas with shredded cheese and sour cream and it's heaven. Utterly heaven.

I wanted to grunt while I was eating it. But I didn't. We made asparagus also, by putting it in a package of tin foil with butter, salt and pepper and grilling it alongside the taco innards. It was amazing. It must be asparagus season!

All in all, it was an amazing meal. And frankly? I don't care for shrimp, but the cod was cheap and if that's what you stuck to? This would be a dang inexpensive meal.

Trying New Things

So, I have been reading on several (well - like a ton) of blogs about the goodness that is baked kale chips. And I was leery, people. Quite leery. Greens don't get crunchy, they get soggy and slimy. I'm not a fan of greens. I wish I was. I try to like them. I really do.

Then smittenkitchen tried them. And she said they didn't suck, so when I was at the grocery store, I picked up some kale because I WANT to like new things, yanno?I mixed up way too much olive oil and sea salt and added way too much garlic for good measure. My capacity for extremes might have been the problem here.
See this bag? It's pre-cut, which in essence makes the pieces a bit too small for "chips."
Here's some smothered kale on a cooking sheet.
Then I baked it. Don't ask me to remember at what temperature or how long. Follow smitten kitchen's recipe, my oven is totally messed up.

And it WAS crispy! It was savory! I could like it, I think. If I hadn't gone overboard with the olive oil and garlic. I will try again, because of course I have a whole other half bag of kale to deal with and I ate it raw in a salad the other day and that was... not so pleasant. Yuck. I was SO hoping to like it because some of the free heirloom seeds I got were for kale. But I think I'm going to pass on planting it. Because I love my garden so much and I don't want to grow things I won't eat. I'll pass them along to someone else.

But it's worth a try guys, just don't do what I did and mess with the recipe. OK?

Tortillas and Turkey

I revere this book. I had to have it. And my mom gave it to me. I don't know if it's hers or if she found it at an estate sale or what, but I love it. It has the history of American food and other and whatever. I love it. I read it like a novel. I read most cookbooks like a novel. I love them. But this is a favorite. I wanted to make homemade tortillas this weekend. I'm not super into making bread, but I thought making tortillas would be fun. Wraps and stuff, yanno?2 cups flour

1 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

1 T. butter

1/2 to 3/4 c. water

How's THAT for preservative free?
Dough.
Couldn't find my rolling pin, so used a can of green beans. I made whole wheat tortillas yesterday and discovered that the Pam Spray can works better. Where is my rolling pin?!
Assembly line.
The recipe says to cook them sans fat. I'm all about that.
The stack of goods. The pictures I didn't take of the whole wheat ones are better. They are much, much thinner and have a whole lot more fiber, and I'm not ingesting the poison that manufacturers put into bread. Right?
My yummy sandwich. Homemade tortilla, turkey, spicy mustard, swiss cheese and lettuce. WiN!
And then I cooked a turkey. Stuffed it with apples and onions.
Then wrapped it up because The Pioneer Woman told me to.
Notice the change of scenery. My gas oven decided to die on me about an hour and a half into the turkey cooking. WHoooom! And then click click click and then Whooom! and then click click click click. My oven was going to kill me. So I took the whole shebang upstairs. NOT happy, but whatever. Done turkey is better than nothing.
Two hours in, I took off the foil and basted it with butter. YUM. Serious yum.
Look at that golden baby. I didn't take pictures of the desecration (carving) because it was awful. I'm not so good with the demise of the turkey. But I now have six freezer bags full of individual sized portions of turkey and I made turkey tacos tonight. Whee! Taco mix, shredded turkey, lettuce, slalsa and cheese make me very happy. On homemade tortillas! Sigh. I'm so tired, I can't even tell you how happy I am.